Having been overtaken with the urge to buy a set of the recent Kato Metra commuter cars and F40PH I now need something to run them on. While I'm planning a 2 unit module for the Seaboard Southern set up that will incorporate a small Metra commuter station I'm also kicking around a plan for an eventual replacement for my current show layout 'Galatia, KS'. From a bit of fiddling on Anyrail I've come up with the below plan

Inspitation is Batavia, IL which is a suburban area between West Chicago to the north and Aurora to the south. The area's industry is served by a single track BNSF spur running from Aurora that previous connected into the UP at West Chicago (was still intact in 1997 according to my old edition SPV rail atlas)

In my modelling reality I'm supposing there is a connect to UP is still intact and a connecting runs METRA service to / from the UP West and BNSF lines. Also the concentration of on-line industries have been shifted a little further south and west that real life

Overall length is currently 16ft with 2 4 ft traversers at each end to allow thro running. BNSF, as line owner is the main operator but UP can visit on occations. The 3 industries planned at present are Butterfield Colour (cement), Millard Refrigerated Services and Proex Carlisle (plastics)

At this stage this is v much in the planning stage so any comments / suggested amendments appreciated

Looking forward to seeing how you get on, a nice looking prototype and a credible addition to the commuter service as Metra are reportedly looking at 'orbital' commuter routes already.

Is putting a gentler S in the 'main line' possible, that would give you visual clue to it being the main track which you could reinforce with ballasting/weathering etc, and visually with the main track then taking the straight(er) route on the turnouts?

Mmmm....have the agree with you Martyn that the alignment of the 'main' could do with a rethink to get it a bit straighter- back to Anyrail for a tinker. I've also considering turning the cement spur into the lead for some off-scene industries as the existing spur is likely to get shorter if I need to move the main track 'up' the layout, plus I'd like some low relief residential buidlings on the backscene to give a clue to it's suburban setting. The off scene spur would also give me a bit more variety to be able to run scrap metal or cut timber so that loading cars can be swapped for empties 'off scene'

Will have a play over Christmas and hopefully have something a little more solid then to re-post

Following my initial post and the resulting feedback I went back and had a think about the design and also, given the amount of modelling time time and money I currently have, how could I get the maximum usage out of a layout. From a combo of comparing design specs for Seaboard Southern and NMRA modules, a comment made to me about Galatia at Benson and the recent debate on this forum re: modular meets it got me thinking.

My original design was around 15" width but it wouldn't be a problem to go to 18". Where I had a full width traverser / storage yard at one end this could be alternated between a converstion board that would close off the loop and industry spur for modular use (as a stub end to a branch) and the original storage board for stand-alone operation.

So.... the below trackplan revised my original to straighten the s curve somewhat and also show a rough idea of what the 4ft x 2ft "converter" board would look like track wise